


A harsh life

by InfinityWriter1000



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Magic-Users, Possible Character Death., human slavery, mythological creatures, slight ooc-ness, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-06-03 23:24:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6631354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityWriter1000/pseuds/InfinityWriter1000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After three thousand years of humans being killed and enslaved by home-world gems a group of freedom fighters called the crystal gems turned on their kind and fought on behalf of humanity. And in the midst of this conflict stands Peridot Olivine, a simple court Sorceress only concerned with deepening her knowledge of the Mystic arts. Until something happens that changes her life forever.</p>
<p>(AU. With medieval setting, and magic wielders... And Slavery).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The Queen and Sorceress

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy! I just joined this sight today and I'm really excited to finally be able to post my Steven universe fic. I've been wanting to write this for months but its just know I've finally been able to get into it. Please leave a review if you liked it.

Night time was the only time when she could relax after a day of hard work. It was supposed to be the only time when she could lock herself away locked away in the simple comfort of her quarters with all her spell books, magic stones, and antique instruments.

She could lay down on her soft finely laid bed and catch some well-deserved rest from a long day of attending balls, performing rituals and occasionally reducing herself to the role of a court jester and performing ridiculous magic spells all in the name of entertaining the princess Jasper. Frankly, performing just the latter alone should have earned her a week of rest but being a court Mage was a thankless job to begin with. So why was she being summoned to the Queens room at mid-night. She swore, nobility had absolutely no respect for her kind.

Holding back an exhausted yawn Peridot fixed her robe on properly and made sure her sorceress hat fit on perfectly, you never wanted to look un-presentable to the queen no matter what. Especially one as quick tempered as Yellow Diamond. Once she was satisfied with her appearance she grabbed her long wooden staff which was resting against a wall.

It was about the same height as her with various magical rune signs written across it. At the very end of each side of the weapon was a small opening where a green gem was fitted. Indeed an elegantly designed staff, one that lords across the four kingdoms would be willing to part with sizeable portions of their wealth just to hang it along their trophy wall and her most prized possession. Her magic staff, a beacon of her role and status to all she met. A weapon of mass destruction that was always within arm’s reach of her.  
And now she would be making use of it to please some obnoxious nobles. Such a cruel life this was. Knocking on the door to Yellow Diamonds chamber she waited for her Queens’s permission before entering.

“My Diamond, you summoned me” Peridot said as she got down on one knee and kept her head bowed. She knew better than to look at the Queen without permission, it was a mistake that had cost too many new Peal servants their lives on the first day.  
Even though this was her 'resting' chamber Yellow diamond wasn’t one that spent a lot of her time relaxing. She was almost always up going over expansion plans or writing letters to other Queens. And just as expected the tall Gem was sitting down on large couch reading a letter. Without even glancing away from her work she used her free hand to motion to Peridot to rise to which the young Mage immediately obliged too.

“Yes, I shall be stepping out the castle tonight to attend to some matters with Blue diamond. Until my return I leave all my administrative duties to you, Sorceress” she said. What? No way, she must have heard that wrong.

“I beg your pardon my lady?” she asked with her head still bowed, she was thankful she had the hat on. The Queen wouldn’t be able to see the shock on her face.

“You heard me the first time Sorceress. You shall be in charge of running the kingdom in my absence, however short it may be” 

“W-With all due respect your majesty, I am but a simple mage, my profession is lifting curses and brewing potions. I don’t know how to run a kingdom. Wouldn’t the young princess be more qualified for such a task?” Peridot questioned while trying her best not to sound irritated. 

Really, why her of all people. She knew she had a habit of internally grumbling and cursing her Queen for always expecting miracles from her for just being talented in the sorcery, perhaps she had been a little too unappreciative of what she had and Karma had caught up to her.  
Laying the letter aside Yellow diamond stood up to her full height. Standing just below nine feet tall with her gold skin that flashed just a little, in turn making Peridot flinch just a little. The Queen truly was an intimidating figure to behold. 

“Oh, please Jasper is a capable warrior and she would have probably made an excellent general if she were born into the army… Which in hindsight she probably should have been, as a Queen she would only bring shame to me. You on the other hand Peridot know enough about politics to make a half-decent ruler. And that is why you have been chosen”

So in other words she wasn’t chosen because Yellow diamond respected her but simply because there wasn’t anyone else who could stand in her place. Well, she couldn’t really say she was surprised.  
She could hear the sound of clanking metal indicating that the Queen was approaching her. 

“I see, but may I ask what this mission is and why it’s so important that you would leave the Kingdom?”. The instant the words left her mouth she felt like slapping herself. She had stepped out of line and the brief silence that followed was probably the most painful thing she had experienced in a while.

“Nothing that concerns one your meager status Sorceress” she responded in a tone that conveyed less annoyance than she expected. 

“My humble apologies, your highness. It was not my place to ask you such a question” she replied quickly to cover up her little slip. She received no response from her Queen and for a moment was worried she had somehow offended her again. 

“…It is fine. I shall leave you with yellow pearl, she’ll help guide you with all your administrative duties while I’m away. You may return to your Quarters for Now. But I need you to return here at dawn to meet up with her. Understood?” she said before walking over to the window and staring into thick forest that surrounded the kingdom. 

“Yes my Diamond”

“Then you are dismissed”

And with that Peridot stood back up and made sure to readjust her hat which was beginning slide off her head. Using her staff as a walking stick she closed door to Yellow Diamonds room behind and made her way back to her room on the other side of the palace. With all the long hallways and staircases she had to go through one would think she’d traveled a kilometer long walk when she reached closing stretch. 

Thankfully she didn’t run into any servants along the way, she couldn’t stand having to respond to their greetings in her exhaustion. She made her way to third floor of a dark spiral staircase and inhaled the familiar scent of marble and wood. Even all the stress she would soon be going through it was comforting to know that this was always waiting for her. The one place that no one in the whole castle was allowed inside other than herself.

Grabbing the knob of the old dungeon-styled wooden door took she stepped into the room and took off her long green robe and carefully detached her prosthetic legs from her torso before crawling into bed and closing her eyes shut. She just wanted to rest now. Whatever pains she would be going through tomorrow weren’t happening now. She sighed, sleeping wasn't something she made a habit of doing but every now and then she'd try it just to calm herself down. It was barely minute before the young sorceress fell into a deep sleep.


	2. Connie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it

She had heard the roar of the thunder more than a few times now and willed herself to go back to sleep. But ten thunder strikes was more than the twelve year old could handle. Opening her eyes Connie sat up with a jolt. Heart beating in fear from the loud noises she took a deep breath to calm her nerves which at the moment felt like butter.  
“Just take deep breaths Connie, it’s just the thunder. Nothing to be afraid of” she whispered in a feeble attempt to make herself feel better. If her mistress Peridot could see this she would probably tell her 

“Woman up Connie. You’re not going to be a child forever”. No doubt while casually filling out some documents.  
Another loud thunder strike sent her hiding beneath the covers shaking uncontrollably. She wasn’t too sure how or when she went back to sleep with the constant thunder strikes but it seemed her body was just too exhausted after twenty minutes of tossing and turning and just gave up. 

Thankfully the sun was shining through her window. On the down side it was still raining quite heavily outside. Well at least she wouldn’t have to force herself to go back to sleep after all this. Rubbing her eyes groggily she reached for her glasses on the bedside drawer and put them on. Stifling a yawn with her hand she got up from her bed and put on her pink bunny slippers, before heading into the bathroom to perform her morning ritual. 

After her bath she got dressed and gathered all her scrolls and manuscripts. There was nothing the mistress valued more than punctuality, if she could do that she was guaranteed to not be lectured too harshly for any mistakes she made during her lessons. She checked her hour glass and saw that she was gonna be late if she wasn’t in class in the next thirty minutes, dang she must have over slept again. 

 

Fortunately she had her trusty wand, phoenix at her side. A quick teleportation spell would get her to class in no time. Reaching into the massive folds of her oversized magic robe Connie pulled out a long Ivory coloured wand. It was carefully carved from top to bottom with the makers initials carved into it. Waving the wand in her hand she closed her eyes and concentrated on where she wanted to go. As soon as she had formed an accurate image in her head she chanted the ancient text that she read in one of her textbooks  
She could feel the magical energy channelling through her body, but for some reason it felt a bit…Off. Suddenly she inhaled the thick smell of burnt wood and blinked her eyes open. And much to her horror the pointed end of the once beautiful wand was charcoal black.

“Oh no. She’s gonna kill me!” Connie said in a panic as she held it closer to her face for a look. There was only one reason for this. Turning it over she stared into a small opening where a green gem stone was supposed to be fitted and felt the urge to pull her hair out.  
Channelling magic into a wand without a gem stone to regulate the energy was a sure fire way to get it damaged. How could she be so stupid! 

“Alright just calm down Connie” she said after a deep breath. Her shoulders slumped and she placed the wand back into her pocket. There was no point in gripping about a dumb mistake she made when the real blunder would be being late to the Mistresses . She grabbed her backpack and stepped out of the room. She locked the door with a click before making her way down the long palace hallway.

Much to her dismay the hallway was chalk full of Pearl servants who were all dressed in formal maid uniforms. And as expected they were doing what they were always doing at all times of the day and night, curtesy of their lack of any need to rest or sleep, EVER.

They were basically made-to-order servants that would do things like thoroughly clean and wax the palace floors or hang knew chandeliers, oh and don’t forget hang Queen Yellow Diamonds one thousandth portrait. 

She could feel their piercing gaze as she passed and tried to keep her nerves in check. It was obvious they looked down on and hated her for her status. After all she was just a lowly human girl, the bottom of the food chain. And from what she’d learned Pearls were at bottom of the Gem Hierarchy right after Rubies and Mercuries which served as basic infantry on the battlefields. Humans were just slaves that spent most of their lives working in Kindergartens as forced labour. Yet this human girl lived a relatively pampered life, and within the palace no less. More than enough to warrant a lot scorn her way.

Making her way into one the large court yards she accidently made eye contact with a group of chatting pearls and gulped when they all glared at her. They really, really, really didn’t like her. And she was certain that the only thing that was keeping her from actually being harassed was the simple fact that her owner was the Queens Sorceress. That and Pearls had a bit of a reputation for being rather quick to fright in any sort of confrontation. Verbal harassment from a distance was the best they could do, usually.

As she made her way to the north side of the palace she climbed up the long stair case and spotted some Diamond nobles walking down from the top, umbrellas raised by some well-dressed human servants to shield them from the light drizzling while leaving themselves completely exposed.

The mere sight was enough to churn her gut and raise bile to her throat. Nobles were the only Gem’s that she hated more than she feared the heads of the four kingdoms. Being the only gems that didn’t have a job assigned to them from creation they were free to do as they pleased to all the others, be it their own kind or humans, especially humans. The books she had read about their sadism towards her kind, the stories she’d overheard from gossiping Pearls. They all painted the diamonds as repugnant monsters, even when compared to Jaspers who were generally considered to be the most bloodthirsty gems.

They were Tyrants, they were despicable, they were standing right in front of her. The obnoxious chatting had ceased and they were now regarding her from halfway across the staircase. Immediately remembering what the mistress had taught her about treating nobility with respect and immediately got down on her knees and bowed her head down until it was touched the soaked ground.

“Greetings Mademoiselles” she said respectfully. She could hear low murmuring from them and frowned.

“Augh, aren’t those royal garments. How repulsive” a feminine voice said from within the group followed by another one.

“I don’t know, young human girls tend to look cute in gem clothing”

She remained perfectly still and prayed they’d lose interest soon and move on, she was already three minutes late and the mistress hated waiting.  
She heard the sound of shuffling feet indicating that they were moving on and exhaled in relief. Next thing she knew she felt a pair of arms tug at her hair and yelped in surprise. Raising her head up reflexively she saw a tall fancily dressed blue diamond noble-woman with short blue hair and eyes smiling down at her, the look in her eyes was one of childish amusement.

“And her hair is so soft and well-conditioned, I should do this to all my human servants” she said happily while some of the others let out unamused groans

“Don’t touch that Aqua, you don’t know where it’s been” 

“Oh come on, just feel her hair for a second. Trust me, you won’t regret it” she said causing her friends to exchange glances before gathering around Connie. 

This wasn’t a new experience by any means. She’d been treated like a common house appliance lots of times back when she was just a slave girl. But that was more than three years ago. And now she was once again feeling the humiliation, the way the gems tugged at her long ebony hair hurt and she wanted to fight back. She wasn’t that weak submissive girl anymore. But she also knew that fighting back would the same as playing with fire. So she swallowed her pride and remained perfectly still  
She felt an arm on her face gritted her teeth in anger as they robbed her of her glasses.

“Oh these are a nice pair of specs. And their medicated too. I wonder who her owner is?”  
“Let me try it on.”

“No way, you were too busy hogging her hair to notice. Finders keepers, as they say”

“Instead of bickering over what Aqua has, why don’t you just check her backpack for something else” said third lady who was clearly annoyed with their bickering.  
What, they actually wanted to take her stuff? Wasn’t it clear by her clothing that she was already owned by someone, stealing from her was the equivalent of stealing from her Mistress. 

No.

She wasn’t about to let this happen to her, they could man handle her all they wanted but she wasn’t about to let them take the glasses her dad made for her. She was about to swat their hands away and stand up when she heard an audible cough which made all diamonds momentarily stop their raid on her hair.

“Ahem!” 

“Oh, its you” said one of them, and she didn’t sound to pleased.

“Don’t the rest of you have something more important to do than ‘THIS’” said a calm monotone voice, but also with and air of authority. She really couldn’t see much of anything with all the females crowding her.

“Oh, come on. Were just having fun”

“Fun? You do realize who’s human that is don’t you?”

“Like it matters. Were all members of blue diamond’s court, we outrank everyone else here”  
“But you don’t out rank Yellow Diamond” the voice said causing some of them to gasp while some of the more stubborn ones huffed in disbelief.

“Oh please the only servant Yellow diamond has is a single Pearl, she has no human servants” the one named Aqua retorted.

“But her Sorceress does. I don’t think Peridot would be too pleased to hear that you inconvenienced her by harassing her servant while performing her duties, now would she? Especially considering her new status as of this morning’s announcement” the voice said with that same air of calm, but with a slight firmness in her tone.

“Wait, this is. T-T-That Witches Servant?” Aqua said as she flung the glasses off her face letting it crash on floor, cracking one its lens in the process. The rest of ladies released her hair quickly stepped away from her.

“Come on girls, we have better thing to do than waste our time on this trash” one said as she rubbed her hands on the suit of one the human servants in an attempt to clean Connie off. No doubt in their eyes she was equal to a filthy animal.

She heard the retreating footsteps and let out a sigh of relief. Reaching for her glasses she froze when a blue hand reached down and grabbed it. Glancing up with an anxious look she saw petite court diamond dressed in a flowy blue dress. She must have been the one that stood up for her. But why?

“Are you alright little one?” she asked as she cleaned the lens with a handkerchief before handing it back to her. She stared at it momentarily before raising a shaky hand to grab it.

“Um yes. I-I mean yes Ma’am” she said nervously. This behavior was so abnormal, why do this for her. After all she was just human.

“That’s good to hear” she said as she helped dust off all the dirt on Connie’s robes before helping offering a hand to help her back to her feet, Connie accepted it reluctantly. 

“Why did you do this for me?” Connie asked when she was back on her feet. At her full height they stood shoulder to shoulder, she couldn’t help but take a little bit of satisfaction from the fact that they stood on equal footing. Well kinda.  
Smiling at her warmly the noble replied.

“No real reason, I suppose I just couldn’t stand by and watch them abuse you like that” she said. Due to overgrown hair her eyes were completely hidden making Connie wonder just how she could see anything.

“I see, thank you”. She wasn’t sure of how to talk to the noble-woman. She had always viewed other Gems as indifferent to the pains of humans, and now a blue Diamond noble of all people was standing up for her. 

“That and it would probably do them some good to not bother you, what with the Sorceress’s new promotion.  
Promotion? What promotion? Come to think of it that was precisely the reason why those nobles left her alone, well that and they hated sorceresses. 

“A promotion? I didn’t know my Mistress was promoted”

“Well I suppose you wouldn’t since most humans would be sleeping at that time of the night. But yes it would appear Queen Yellow diamond left the palace yesterday along with a small platoon of Rubies and Jaspers. She appointed Sorceress Peridot as your kingdoms temporary ruler until her return” she explained. “And by the looks of things I imagine Princess Jasper’s going to raise some trouble for her”

This was a lot to take in, her mistress was promoted last night and she didn’t even have the slightest clue.  
Normally a promotion was meant to be a good thing but if there was thing she knew about her Mentor it was that she was a creature of habit, content with where she stood in life and wasn’t interested in changing it in the least. There was no doubt that she wouldn’t be too thrilled about her new status, but she also wondered how this would affect her classes.

“Well, it was nice meeting you little- sorry but what’s name?”

“Oh, um it’s Connie my lady”

“I see. Well my name is Sapphire, It was nice talking to you but if I loiter here any longer Blue diamond may begin to notice my absence” she said as she lifted her long dress and made her way down the staircase.

“Yes my lady” she said awkwardly. Now that she was alone again she noticed that all the nearby gem’s had paused their work to stare at the little exchange, some looked angry that she had emerged from the Diamond nobles relatively unharmed, but most of them just looked shocked that a noble woman from Blue Diamonds inner circle had stood up for her. 

She herself was still trying to process the information. But then she remembered that she still had a class to get and shook the thought out of her head before hurrying up the stairs.  
When she finally made it to the laboratory she was panting uncontrollably from all the staircases she had to climb. But she was also relaxed. No servants ever visited this part of the castle, it was reserved for her mistress only. Not even the snobbish Pearls were allowed to decorate the room with useless ornaments or pictures of any diamonds.

There were however a few portraits about ancient Mages and historical figures. Both human and Gem alike that had changed history. The wall made from a mix of rock and Cement with a few gem tech enhancements to make it more durable. Occasionally there was a Knight standing by a wall. All of this combined with the scent incense gave the place a really gothic feel to it.  
She said it was supposed to help ward off spiritual monsters that were attracted to the vast amount energy within the room as well as make her magic easier to control during training sessions. 

Honestly Connie was just glad to be rid of the constant smell of cement.  
After taking a brief moment to catch her breath she reached for the knob of a huge wooded door and pulled it open before making her way into a huge room with book shelves that reached as high as two stories, all lined with books neatly arranged from left to right of each row there were about five of them in total with a few tables which she used for studying. 

Adjacent to the door was a large table that had some large cylindrical containers that contained some dark chemicals, there were also a few dissected centipedles and some herbs. And opposite to her was a large desk with a large pile of paperwork and spell books. Lastly there were a few windows around the room that kept it well illuminated.

“For once, she’s the one that’s late” Connie muttered as she adjusted her cracked glasses and closed the door behind her, she then proceeded to dump her bag on the closest table before walking over to the desk. The mistress normally left notes on her table for Connie to find in the rare event she couldn’t find time for their classes. It was usually just simple things like researching certain monster species, or ancient civilizations. 

“Here it is” she said as she grabbed a small paper for her.

'Unfortunately I won’t be able to make to our class today due to circumstances that you’re probably aware of… This is so ridiculous. Me Ruling the kingdom in the Queens absence is an unfortunate turn of events, but regardless I expect you to continue your studies on earth history as you normally do…I’ll try to find time to see you for dinner Connie. Oh and please refrain from falling asleep while working again, I didn’t set up that bedroom for you all for nothing.'

She smiled slightly before putting the paper down. Her Mistress had a really indirect way of showing that she cared for her well-being, always trying to keep things formal and professional. At first she just thought that the mistress just wanted her to remain as healthy as possible, lord knows how many human slaves had died on the first month of ‘employment’ due to the poor living conditions of the Kindergarten. 

But she was way too kind for that to work. She knew for a fact that even the Gems that valued their slave’s longevity wouldn’t go to this extent to make her comfortable, after all it was her health that mattered not her happiness. Minus the constant glares and loathing she got from Pearls she probably had one the best deals a human could hope for under gem rule.  
“Alright, where’s that history text book?” she muttered before pulling a chair from one of the tables and pulling out her scrolls.


	3. A rough start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's the next chapter. Not sure if its too long or short though. I hope you all enjoy reading this fic as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

“Well, you’ve certainly got nerve. I’ll grant you that Sorceress” said a very peeved looking Jasper as she glowered at Peridot who rubbed her sore temples in exasperation. While she didn’t fear Jasper she certainly didn’t want to be on the princess’s bad side. She had spent the whole morning mentally preparing herself for the inevitable confrontation and with such a short fuse she certainly had to choose her words carefully.

“Oh, a pleasure to see you, your majesty. Is there something you need from me” she said with a practiced smile and bow. They were in the middle of the War room and she was waiting for Yellow diamonds Pearl to show up when the huge six foot Gem stormed in.

“Peridot, what’s all this rubbish I’m hearing about you ruling the Kingdom in the Queens absence”

“It isn’t rubbish Majesty. The Queen ordered me to rule the kingdom until she returns”

“What? Why the hell would she do that? Your just a servant” Jasper barked as she slammed her huge fist into the table, completely shattering it. She was just within arm’s length of the huge gem now, not exactly a desirable distance if things got violent, and so she took a few steps back to give herself some leg room.

“It seems she did not feel that you were up to the task” she said with an air of professionalism, but since that would likely set her off the young sorceress spoke more. “At least not yet”

“What?!” Jasper barked as he glowered at her. She needed to rephrase that differently.

“Well, what I mean to say is that these tasks are of little importance. I’m sure if the matter was truly urgent her majesty would have given you the responsibility” she said in a tone that she hoped sounded reassuring.

Just then a visibly nervous looking yellow Pearl walked in with a small notepad and inked feather. She looked like she was trying to keep calm but the slight nervousness in her eye couldn’t be mistaken. No doubt terrified by the seven foot tall Jasper.  
She gave a respectful bow and greeting, as was expected of all Gems

“What the hell do you want?” Jasper growled.

“W-Well, it’s just that the Queen left you some assignment she wants you to take care of. Immediately” she stated with extra emphasis on the last word, no doubt as eager to get her out of the room as the Sorceress was. Peridot wouldn’t have been worried if it were any other Gem, after all disobedience was a sign only shown by defective Gems, and there was little tolerance for such things in the Yellow Kingdom.   
However Jaspers were most known for their Quick temper and generally stubborn attitude. They were natural leaders but insufferable subordinates. Especially when said Jasper had an Ego as big as her fist.

“I know that Dumbass, I don’t need a Pearl telling me that” she said as she turned her head back to the straight faced but internally nervous Peridot. They had a brief staring contest before Jasper exhaled, seemingly in defeat. But then with lightning reflexes she grabbed the young Sorceress by the throat and effortlessly lifted her off the ground.  
She barely even had enough time to let out a shocked gasp before the sound was muffled by her choking. She heard Pearl let out a frightened yelp and back away but she could barely register much else other than the fact the princess was choking her to death.  
Her magic staff had fallen to the ground with a loud ‘clang’ leaving her with no other option than to pry at the giant fingers in a feeble attempt to free herself.

“Why? Why does she always favour you? What’s so special about some filthy Mage that she’d choose you over me?” Jasper asked. She could see right into her eyes, and that look was as clear to her as day. Anger, resentment, Jealousy and most of all, hurt.

“Princess, please stop! The Queen could punish you severely if you kill her” Pearl said in a worried tone. Though there was little doubt it was more for how this would affect her than Peridot.

“Shut up! I’m sick of this defective Peridot constantly garnering favour from the Queen. I’m ending her right now!”

She could feel light cracks beginning to form on her face and knew her physical form was beginning to fail. If she took too much damage she would be forced back into her Gem, if that happened she’d be completely defenceless. She couldn’t allow that.  
Concentrating all her power into her eyes the pupils gradually began to lose their emerald colour until both sockets were completely black. Staring intensely into Jaspers eyes it wasn’t until a few seconds had passed that her eyes lost all its rage and turned into surprise before settling on blank.

“Re…Releas-se me” she said causing Jaspers hold on her neck to instantly loosen and Peridot was unceremoniously dropped on her knees. She let out a few coughs and rubbed her bruised neck. Reaching for her staff for defence she stood up and faced the presently telepathically influenced Japer spoke.

“Now Princess, I do believe there are some duties that you are still yet to fulfil” she said as straightened out her robe and hat. 

“Yeah yeah. I know that, insect” Jasper muttered in irritation before turning round and stomping out of the room. She was quite fortunate that Jasper didn’t have a strong mental will, otherwise she’d have surely croaked. 

“What did you just do to the Princess, Sorceress?” asked an astonished Pearl as she stared at the door. She wasn’t worried about how the gem might have reacted considering that they were in the same boat. Ruling the Kingdom was as much her responsibility as it was Peridot’s. 

To add to it the Queen wasn’t exactly known for her understanding and would punish them both regardless of who was at fault. Even if whether or not she actually cared for Jasper’s well-being was in Question. With a shrug Peridot gave a simple reply.

“Hypnotic suggestion”

“What?”

“I used my magic to coerce her into calming down” she explained. An appalled look formed on her face at hearing that.

“What! You do realize that using magic against royalty is treason, don’t you?” she said in a tone that conveyed both anger and a bit of fear. “How do you think it’ll pan out if the Queen finds out about this?!”

“At the moment there isn’t exactly anyone else that can fill our shoes. So I’d say there’s a fair chance she wouldn’t kill us. But still it wouldn’t be wise for this information to leak” she cautioned while running a hand over the gems on her staff in case there were any cracks. 

Angered by her nonchalant attitude Pearl got right up in Peridotes composed face, surprising her a little.

“Listen up you little Cripple. I’ve spent several millennia’s building the Queens faith in me, and I’m not about to let some ‘techie-playing-magician’ to tarnish that” she said she glared into her eyes intensely. For a second she felt the slight pang of anger at hearing her handicap being mentioned but she quickly brushed it aside in favour of keeping things neutral.

She would have found the sight rather Comical if she wasn’t the object of Yellow Pearls anger, after all Pearls weren’t fighters so seeing one try to look intimidating was rather amusing. But then again she did have a little bit of authority over other Gems, specifically other Pearls and Rubies.   
Rolling her eyes she used her free hand to gently push her away and out of her personal space. 

“Don’t worry yourself. The effects will wear off within an hour and she won’t even remember this little encounter” she said as she turned to the broken table. With a single snap of her fingers the table repaired itself and stood looking as good as knew.

“But-“

“I said don’t worry” she said a bit more sternly. Letting out a frustrated ‘hmph!’ she walked over to the side of the table laid the notepad down.

“Very well then. There are a lot of things we need to do so it would be prudent for us to begin immediately” she said becoming more serious.

“Alright then. What is it?”

“Resource allocation squabbles among Peridotes’ in the kindergarten sector Z, then some minor paperwork followed by an inspection of the latest Bach of human servants. Then a meeting with some White diamond court members who want to purchase a few harvesters. Then you’ll need to go over and approve some of the expansion plans that the Queen couldn’t legislate before her departure. By my estimations it’ll take about a week or so to complete” 

Her head was beginning to hurt from all that information and she raised a hand to rub her sore temple.

“Something tells me this isn’t going to be half as easy as you make it sound. Which doesn’t really sound easy to begin with” she muttered with humourless smile. 

“You’re a ruler now, better get used to it” Yellow Pearl replied as she pushed a stray lock out of her face and crossed her arms with notepad pressed to her chest. 

“Indeed. I AM a ruler now” she said with a light chuckle.“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing really. Just took a moment to consider my status and realize just how ridiculous this whole scenario is”. At that a small mildly amused smile formed on Pearls lips.

“Indeed, I had always thought a Peridot ruling a kingdom was as likely as humanity winning the War. And yet here you stand before me. It seems miracles do happen” she said as the amusement on her face grow ever so slightly. And for a moment Peridot considered taking back every bad thing she ever thought about the assistant. But only for a moment.  
It seemed she had her work cut out for her and couldn’t help but feel a little guilty that she probably wouldn’t be able to meet up with Connie tonight. But there wasn’t really much she could do about it. Twirling her long staff Peridot sighed.

“Well then, let’s begin”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And done! The next chapter will be updated soon since its already half finished. It would also be appreciated if someone would leave a comment telling me what they liked or hated about this fic. As a writer I'm willing to accept all kinds of reviews including flames (though I'd appreciate it if its kept constructive) in order to improve the quality of this fic.
> 
> Well I'll see you guys in the next chapter.


	4. Water Sorceress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice to finally update again. The Internets been down for while at my place and I just managed to get it working again. Well enjoy!

Deep in woods, between the borders of the Yellow and Blue Diamond Kingdoms. A small Platoon of Gems could be seen marching along the beaten path that was covered with green leaves and twigs. A single Jasper stood at the lead, she was riding a huge completely black Rhino with Razor sharp horns and blood shot eyes.

At the back a dozen rubies could be seen marching bare foot, their expressions stone cold and menacing. And in the middle, ridding a huge Sabertooth-Tiger was Queen Yellow Diamond dressed in her usual Gold armour. Her Beast was about the same size as the Rhino but twice as formidable with all the Gold Armour placed around it, both to match its rider and to make it extremely difficult to injure. Its open Jaws showed a Perfect set of Razor sharp Fangs that could bite through rock.

The sun was shining above the tress now, the previous night’s storm had completely subsided, allowing the bright rays to coat the forest in a light Green hue, complemented only by the faint smell of wet grass and dirt. The chirping of humming birds in the trees gave life to the forest.

Perched on the high branch of one of the Tress was a small brown Owl. Its eyes watched the Semi large Platoon momentarily before letting out a ‘Who’ and fluttering off across the forest. It flew for several minutes across the rain forest before diving back into the trees.

A small Narrow cave could be seen at the bottow. It was discreetly hidden under some broken trees and boulders with some of the long leaves draping over the edge and partially covering the top side of the caves entrance. The tiny Owl flew into the human sized entrance, taking full advantage of its flexible bone structure and enhanced sight to navigate through the dark cave without flying into anything.

It eventually found a wide interior that had an open roof that sunlight could radiate through. A small cloaked figure could be seen sitting on a boulder. She raised a blue hand up from within the cloak and owl made use of it as a perch.

“What is it?” the individual said in a soft feminine voice as she pulled down her hood revealing a blue haired gem with short hair and Aqua skin. Blinking its wide eyes back at her the owl let out another WHO. Immediately the girls face was replaced with one of fear.

“What!? They’re that close. We need to inform Rose at once” she said as she stood up with the owl still perched on her arm and walked over to a small makeshift table formed with some pushed over boulders where a crystal ball was placed. 

Hovering her palm above it the Crystal ball levitated into the air until it was at eye level with her. An image began to form inside it for a few moments before settling on the picture of Rose Quarts.

“Lapis? What’s the matter?” she asked with a confused look.

“You need to hide, Yellow Diamond is on her way to your camp!” she warned causing the Quart’s eyes to widen in surprise before looking over her shoulder. Next thing she heard was a loud explosion followed by some Yelling from Pearl.

“Rose! Blue Diamond Knights are attacking!” she said.

“Oh Dear” Rose said in tone that conveyed a lot less concern that it should have. Gritting her Teeth Lapis felt her arms go clammy.  
An ambush, how in the world did she her Owl sentries not intercept it.

“It a trap. Rose you and Pearl need to get out of there now” she said frantically. The older Gem simply smiled back at her calmly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. More importantly hold onto this” she said right before a pink bubble materialized next to her containing a large glowing stone. “This stones is the crystal gems only hope Lapis. Keep it safe for us. Okay?” she said.

She didn’t like where this was going. There was no way the rebellion would last without Rose there to lead it. And under no circumstances would she let her only hope of a free world die without a fight.

“Quit speaking like it’s over. I’ll come over and teleport you all out of there” she said but Rose shook her head as an arrow wheezed past her. She had barely any reaction to it, as she usually did. In the background she could see other Crystal gems fighting, a few Jaspers and one fusion fighting off some huge blue Bears.

“You know your powers can only teleport a few of us at a time and there are over a hundred of us. I’m not about to leave anyone behind”

“But you-“

“Just do as your told Lapis” she said sternly causing Lapis to fall silent. Offering a single reassuring smile Rose turned her back to her before the image faded. Clenching her fist she lowered her hand as a sign for the Owl to leave which the animal did obediently.

Reaching for the floating Bubble she popped it and used her free to keep it levitated above the ground. She then pressed it to her chest and allowed her liquid skin to absorb the stone until it was safely place within her chest. If they had discovered the campsite then chances were her cave could be compromised as well. Chanting a spell her body quickly dissolved into liquid before leaving a small puddle on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I went over this chapter it always felt like there was something I could have done better somewhere but I eventually realized that if didn't stop thinking so hard about the quality of each individual chapter the story would never get anywhere. And the real story hasn't even started yet. Nope far from it. This first couple of chapter are just setting up the ground rules.
> 
> Well I'll try to get next one out sooner that this. Until then. Sayonara!


	5. Chapter 5

Back in the Yellow diamond kingdom the day went on and twilight eventually emerged robbing the library windows of the light necessary for Connie to read her books effectively, her bones felt stiff from not moving for hours and she was being plagued by an annoying hunger. But she was nothing if not persistent.  
She would have used her wand to illuminate the room but it was a little too broken at the moment to be of much use to her now. So instead she did the old fashioned thing and lit the fireplace so she could get back to work. She knew it was getting late and she should have probably retired back to her room by now. But since she was almost done with most of her research she decided to continue studying for just a little longer. 

As it turned out human history was a lot more expansive than she had first thought. Since no one in the kindergarten had ever kept track of how long they had been under Gem rule she had just assumed that they’re entire history was about serving gems, oh how wrong she was.  
It turned out that mankind was chalk full of different histories, cultures, religions and so much more. Some so old they were almost entirely forgotten. Others so well known that they stood test of time millennia’s after they’re bearers died out. Her imagination was the only thing that could tell what life would have been like if home world never invaded. 

It seemed the more she read the less she knew. Hell she could probably dedicate every moment of her life to learning as much about her history as possible and still just be scratching the surface.  
However she wouldn’t be much of a Sorceress if she was just reading about her own races history, nope she was reading up on the planet’s life cycle itself. The various minerals the planet had which coincidentally shared names and characteristics with certain Gem types. 

Evidently Earth wasn’t the only place where Gems could be made. The real question that puzzled her was why these Gems hadn’t gained a physical form or consciousness like their other-worldly counterparts. Oh well, another question for the mistress in their next class. 

With a yawn Connie closed the huge text book and pulled out her portable hourglass. It was already past eight.

“Well I guess I bit off more than I could chew again” she muttered as she stretched her stiff limbs and packed up her stuff. She felt the hunger begin to set and she placed an arm over her stomach. 

“Come to think of it, I haven’t actually eaten anything all day. Guess I should whip up something” 

One would assume that she would have been starving from not eating anything in over twenty four hours but thanks to the magical energy overflowing within her blood her body could go on for a day, sometimes two days without even needing to eat or drink water. But becoming too dependent on the power wasn’t advisable since the magic was coming from her own life force.  
Of course as a Gem the Sorceress Peridot had no reason to use her magic for such purposes since her body was naturally self-sustaining. But Connie, despite all her training was still very much a growing human. Or as her mistress liked to phrase it ‘still a fragile human girl’. It was especially tiring when she kept on using that term to describe her.

Zipping up her backpack she stepped out of the room and made her way down the hallway and towards the little Pantry built in for her. Eating wasn’t exactly something she particularly enjoyed thanks to the poor cooking proficiency of Pearls, but since the food usually did its job and kept her fed it didn’t much matter whether or not it tasted good.  
Grabbing a piece of bread from one drawers she pulled out a plate and flask of water from the drawer. She then pulled out some cooked pieces of chicken from one of the pots and set all down on the plate. It wasn’t exactly a five star dinner by any kings standards but to someone who used to live in the kindergarten it was a luxury. 

Out of habit she took large bites before chewing on and swallowing the edibles, a habit from her time in the kindergarden since eating hours were dreadfully then it was in a humans best interest to consume as much as possible. Within a few minutes she was already done with the whole pot and moved on to munching on the bread. She guzzled the entire flask and wiped her mouth. Pleased that her stomach had stopped grumbling she washed and cleaned the plate before putting everything back in place.  
Making her way out of the pantry she headed for the exit that would take her back to the main castle. But just as she passed the library she heard the sound of murmuring from the other side which caused her to freeze in her tracks

‘I didn’t hear the mistress enter the room. Perhaps she teleported’ Connie thought as she turned around and walked over to the door and pushed it open. But the mistress was nowhere in sight, just an empty office. 

“Hmm, I could have sworn I heard someone” she muttered to herself as she closed the door. Perhaps she was just exhausted from all the studying she had done the day before. Yeah, that was probably it

Adjusting the slings on her backpack she made her way back to her quarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Im back with another chapter of this project. The next one will be uploaded shortly so you wont have to wait long.


	6. Surprise attack

“Ayah!” Pearl yelled as she used her blade to deflect a few daggers that were thrown at her. She then ducked under the spear of a well armoured opponent and shoved her blade right through the enemies exposed skull. A brief look of shock passed through the enemies face before her body was poofed back into her Gem. Pearl didn’t hesitate for a second to slice it in half, effectively removing the Gem from battle.

Even though she was swarmed from all sides by Rubies she skilfully avoided all their attacks while landing some well-timed counter blows of her own. She knew that the most efficient way to put them down was to aim for their Gems, though Rose didn’t approve of that tactic. She’d normally have listened to her words, really under any other circumstances she’d follow those instructions to the letter. But when the object of her affection was at risk of being potentially injured or worst. Well Pearl would willingly disregard any order to protect her. Even against Rose’s own wishes.

Speaking of whom, she could see her fearless leader Rose Quarts standing on the other end of the battlefield sword and shield drawn, ready to fight with the same care free unworried demeanour she always had. She was fighting against three Jaspers at once and didn’t even seem to be breaking a sweat. Her blade traded blows with their huge horns drawing sparks from the heat of their weapons. Her shield easily blocked all their attacks and judging by the self-assured smirk on her lips she clearly wasn’t worried.  
In that moment she felt the temptation to just stop and just gawk at Rose as she fended the Jaspers off, but it would make for an embarrassing death if she left herself open for such a reason. Instead she kept her guard up and scanned her surrounding for any attackers.

It was hard to tell if the other crystal gems were winning the battle or not but from the looks of things they were just barely holding the enemy back. It was then that Pearl spotted a pair of blue Tigers break away from their respective opponents and make a bee line straight for Rose. There was no way she’d be able to see them coming with those Japers in her way. So Pearl ran over to approaching duo while avoiding rocket fire and thrown projectiles. She wouldn’t just stand by and allow it, no. All that mattered was Rose and no one else to her.  
Leaping into the air she raised her long rapier above her head and performed an aerial flip to build her momentum before bringing her sword down on one the beasts’ neck. The Tiger growled both in surprise and agony as it fell over on its side. The other one roared at her defiantly and charged. Twirling her blade between her dexterous fingers she side flipped out of the way of its attack.

Using both hands she made a horizontal slash at the beasts back and was pleased when she saw blood leak from her blade. The Tiger let out a pained growl before turning around and glaring at her intensly. The first stood at its side having recovered from its shock and had its fangs bared and ready. Their crimson red eyes showed nothing but blood lust.  
Smirking confidently she held her blade in a backhand grip. Predatory instinct kicking in the two beasts began circling her from each side in an obvious attempt to make it harder for her to defend her blind spot. She cleared her mind and remained planted in her position with her grip on the blade tightening ever so slightly.

With blinding speed one of the tigers growled and lunged at her. Fortunately all her reflex training had paid off and she performed a split in the span of a second. It felt as though time slowed down as the Tiger leaped right over her body and leaving its belly completely exposed for her blade to pierce right through it.  
Tumbling to the ground the tiger writhed in agony as a crimson liquid leaked from its belly which was still being impaled by her sword. There was no time for a victory cry since she knew the second Tiger was now in her blind spot and was no doubt about pounce, she also knew that for all her training there was no way she could stand up from such a position and defend herself before it could reach her.

No. Only instincts could save her from being mauled. Reaching into her Gem she pulled out a short Dirk blade, she then forced her lids closed and concentrated on her sense of hearing to guide her arms. It only took the faint sound of a twig snapping to guide her dirk straight into the beast head. She was rewarded by the sound of a pained growl from the beast it as it pulled back. Pearl easily twisted her body back to her feet with a level of skill one could only associate with an expert Contortionist.  
Glaring daggers at the Tiger she was about land a killing blow when the beast scurried off into the bushes. Clearly it knew it had been beaten. She allowed herself a moment of pride for having fended off the Beast with injuries considering it was her first time fighting Tigers. But it wasn’t long before she remembered why she charged in the first place what she was doing and turned around to see Rose standing right in front of her.

“Rose, are you alright?” she asked almost instinctively as her leader/mistress smiled down at her.

“I’m fine. You’ve been getting faster, I’m impressed Pearl. But are you hurt anywhere?” she asked in that angelic voice of hers. Blushing lightly in embarrassment Pearl looked away with her Dirk lowered.

“My well being is of less concern than yours…But I do appreciate it my lady” Pearl replied as she rubbed her shoulder.

“Not True Pearl. Your well-being is of the greatest importance to me. All of you” she said as she patted Pearls Ginger hair. She couldn’t deny she felt her heart sink when Rose made the statement much more general. She briefly contemplated what her reply would be but Rose spoke again.

“The others aren’t fairing too well” she said in a much more serious like demeanor. “We need to retreat into the forest before Yellow diamonds forces arrive” she said. 

“And the Novanoil?”Pearl asked.

“Don’t worry I handed it to Lapis for safe keeping”

“The Hydromancer? Can we even trust her?” Pearl questioned skeptically. After all, the rebellions whole future was riding on it and magic sensitives weren’t exactly known for their trust worthiness. She had no reason to believe this so called defector would actually be of any help. Well other than Roses faith.

“I trust her” she said simply as she pulled a shocked Pearl into her chest and lifted shield up to deflect a stray projectile. Gasping in surprise Pearl pulled away and drew a spare sword from her Gem.  
Suddenly the sound of trumpets invaded their ears and all eyes were drawn to the image of a small platoon of soldiers charging at full speed towards them. There was no mistaking that flash of Gold anywhere. Queen Yellow diamond.

“It seems her Majesty is anxious to meet us” Rose said with an amused smile. Eyes widening in surprise Pear turned back to her leader.

“Shouldn’t we retreat? We’re not going to last with these reinforcements” she said to which Rose nodded in agreement before raising her sword into the air. There was a brief flash of pink light coming from its edges before the whole blade started to glow. The light continued to grow in intensity until it let a burst energy that completely enveloped the battle field.  
Yet for some reason she didn’t sense any discomfort from looking straight into its bright rays, her eyes didn’t water and the heat didn’t rise. However she could hear countless pained groans from all around her. Yet when she turned around she could see all the Crystal gems standing by downed opponents completely unbothered by the light, but just as shocked by their opponent’s sudden defeat.

“Retreat into the forest! Now!” she heard Rose yell with enough Volume for all to hear. The others didn’t waste a second and began running over to the forest behind her and Rose. “You too Pearl” she instructed.

“What. Rose no! But what about you?”

“Don’t worry. I just need to hold out until everyone’s escaped. I’ll be alright” she said. But Pearl wasn’t convinced.

“Then I’ll stay behind and help out”

“No. I need you to lead everyone else back to the caves. I’ll meet you there” 

“But I-“ she began protest when she was cut off.

“Pearl. The others need you more than I do right now. If they don’t have a leader their morale is sure to drop. We can’t afford that“ Rose said as she ruffled her ginger hair reassuringly. “Don’t’ worry I’ll be right behind you”  
Tightening her fist around her blade Pearl gave an obedient nod before taking a few hesitant steps away from Rose. She took one last glance at her before running off into the bushes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another. It might be a week or so before I can release. Unfortunately real life doesn't take rain checks. But if possible i'll be sure to release another chapter before the week ends. The stories almost ready to really begin though and i'm pretty excited to write my favorite parts. So you can all look forward to that.
> 
> Either way i'll see you guys in the next chapter.


	7. The tyrant and rebel

As the last of the crystal gems retreated into the forest Yellow diamond watched on with an unreadable expression. Her bright gold eyes glaring at their retreating backs, the burning light that radiated from Roses blade served as only a minor annoyance to her superior vision. Having spotted her troops approaching all the blue diamond soldiers moved in to stand at their flank.   
Eventually the light emerging from the blade began to fade and Yellow diamond motioned her troops to surround the gem with a snap of her finger. Strife, the sabretooth Tiger she rode let out a menacing growl as it approached the leader of the revolt that had been a thorn at her side for months.

“So I presume you must be the Rose Quarts I’ve heard so much about from blue diamond” she said as she stopped a few feet away from her target. With her blade lowered Rose looked up at her and smiled defiantly. Clearly this Quarts wasn’t unnerved by her menacing stature or the soldiers she had under her command. After all if her gem was cracked enough to spearhead a rebellion then it was probably blocking out other rational thoughts like fear too.

“Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, your majesty” she with a polite bow. Narrowing her eyes at her bowing form Yellow diamond replied in a dark tone that demanded respect.

“Wish I could say the same, but I detest liberals” she said as she raised an arm up in motion. In response three rubies grabbed Rose and forced her onto her knees. She put up no resistance as her blade and shield were seized from her arms. 

Dismounting from strife Yellow diamond walked up to her, her heavy armour clanking as she moved.

“You, Rose Quarts are public enemy number one across all the kingdoms. You’ve destroyed over a dozen mining camps and warp sites, you’ve also stolen well over a hundred human slaves from their diamond holders, some of which were done in my kingdom. But most of which were done in Pink Diamonds Kingdom. As a result you’ve derailed your own Kingdoms development to a crawl. What do you have to say for yourself Quarts?”

“Well what can I say? I find the diamonds plans for this world somewhat problematic to my own” Rose said with mild amusement on her face. She needed to do something about that smirk.

“I see” Yellow diamond said as she looked down at her, her face giving away none of growing irritation in her gut. Next she slugged Rose hard across her right cheek making her fall over. The Quarts groaned in pain as she fell hard on her side.

Rubbing her knuckles Yellow Diamond glared at her. “And what exactly are these plans of yours?” she asked as she grabbed her by the scruff of her large pink hair and pulled her up right. Her left check was red and swollen, her eyes narrowed as she tried to hold in a pained groan.

“Ah. N-Now that would be telling, wouldn’t it” she replied with a mocking smile. Just what sort of game was she playing? Did she really believe her crystal gems stood a chance against the Yellow kingdom? The largest army in all the kingdoms. If so then she was an even bigger fool than she had first thought.  
Grabbing her by the throat the old Diamond easily hoisted her into the air. Rose squeezed hard on her arm in an attempt to brake her grip, but it was an exercise in futility. As a Diamond in both body and title she naturally stronger than any other gems, and besides that she had over a million years of battle experience on this pathetic excuse of a warrior.

“I don’t like being toyed with Quarts” she said venomously as she tightened her constraint on Rose ever so slightly. In response to her words Rose let out a strained laugh and looked straight into her glowing death glare.

“Huh. Rea-ll…y? I’m just getting star-ted” she said as the energy left her body. Sighing in frustration she dropped Rose on her knees and watched as she rubbed her sore throat, the surface of her skin riddled with a thick hand bruise.  
Folding both hands behind her back Yellow diamond looked over to a blue Quarts who had a special blue rose Tattoo on her chest indication she was the highest ranked.

“You”.

“Yes my Diamond?” she replied respectfully.

“Of the rest of the crystal gems that retreated into the forest. Did you manage to capture any?” she asked to which the Quarts shook her head.

“No, unfortunately they all escaped my Diamond”

“I see. Good” she said with a rare smile forming on her lips. The rest of the troops were visibly unsettled by her odd response but none of them dared to mummer a word.

“I. Beg your Pardon my Diamond?” the Quarts inquired puzzled. Smile fading from her face she looked down at Rose who was staring back at her insolently. Her gaze didn’t linger though as she turned back to the blue Quarts.

“Carpet bomb the whole area. We’ll reduce this rebellion to ashes along with this whole forest if we have to” she said as she looked back at Rose who finally looked something akin to concerned.  
Reaching into her chest diamond she materialised a huge broadsword with a bright gold hilt. It would be impossible to wield effectively by any other gem due to its massive proportions, but Yellow Diamond. It matched her giant figure perfectly. Running her finger across its sharp edges she spoke.

“This is your only chance to redeem yourself Quarts. Confess all your crimes to me now and I’ll see that your death is swift, and perhaps even pardon some of your treacherous subordinates. Surely you value their well-being more than your own” she said she pressed the blades tip to the rebel’s throat and made a light cut.

She received no response for a moment before Rose made a light giggle which gradually grew into full blown laughter. Some of the other Rubies exchanged some uncertain looks, clearly not at all expecting that response. Eventually her laughter died down and Rose fixed her with piercing stare which Diamond returned in kind.

“The rebellion would have happened with or without me, I simply just laid the foundations. And it sure as hell isn’t going to collapse without me. The days of the diamonds ruling our race with an iron fist are over”

“Perfidious to the very end. So be it-” she said before slamming her in the face with her boot and holding her down with one leg, blade held to her throat. “-I’ll have every last gem crushed before your eyes before finishing you myself” she said just as she drove her blade into Roses chest and watched her face contort in pain just before poofing her into a thick cloud of pink dust. Her defenseless gem landing on the soft grass.

Reaching down she grabbed the quarts gem and held it up. It would only take just the smallest amount of pressure for her to crush it, it wouldn’t be hard at all. Just one swift move and infamous Rose Quarts would be gone, FOREVER.  
Would the rebellion continue on without its founder present? Perhaps. Either way she looked forward to squashing this rebellion.

“Ion cannons are ready my Diamond” the blue Quarts said from behind her. 

“Good” Yellow diamond said as her large golden broadsword dematerialised in a brief flash of gold light. Holding the gem in both hands she bubbled and teleported it to a secure location, where none could find it.

“Destroy everything” she ordered wheeled round and approached the commander who had a dozen Ion cannons lined up before the forest. 

“Yes Ma’am” they said as the canons were charged up before belching a huge load of blue fire into the trees, melting right through the wood upon contact. The canons alone could propel the flames a hundred metres running at fifty percent and it full power that distance would double.  
To add to it their standard temperature was over three thousand degrees Celsius meaning the trees would melt practically on contact. At this rate it wouldn’t be long before they caught up those crystal gems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys. I'm finally back with another chapter of a harsh life (yeah, I Know, crappiest name ever). Had some exams to deal but now that its almost finished i figured it wouldn't hurt to post another chapter. So yeah the story isn't abandoned or anything like that, so no worries.
> 
> I'll have the next chapter up as soon as i'm done with it, so until then stay frosty guys.  
> -Infinity out.


	8. Thief?!

After three days of diligent research Connie could confidently boast that she understood her study material page for page at this point. And with the task given to her finished she now lacked any work to keep her focused at any point, this was something rarely ever happened since the mistress would always give her another task to focus on as soon as she completed everything. But she hadn’t seen her in days and occasionally felt the temptation to seek her out, however the thought only hovered in her mind momentarily before being dismissed

She of all people knew better than to wonder the castle when there were a handful of blue and yellow diamond nobles still strolling about aimlessly through the castle looking for something to amuse them if only for a moment. And besides all of that she doubted the Sorceress would even appreciate her presence there while she was busy trying to rule a kingdom. 

“Well, guess it’ll be just me again today. Great” she said sarcastically as she returned the books back to their proper shelves and took a moment to examine the condition of the room. The centipedes were still laying undisturbed on the table, and for some reason they hadn’t started rotting yet. Maybe due to some chemicals that were injected into their veins, or perhaps magic. With the near endless stream of resources the Sorceress had at her disposal it could have been anything really.

The only thing really worthy of note was that the room was starting to get a little dusty, so she decided to clean it. She reached into her pocket for phoenix and groaned when she remembered her little accident. Well there was always the old fashioned way.  
Grabbing a broom and packer from one of the shelves she proceeded to thoroughly clean the room.

“I guess this counts as a punishment” she muttered to herself as she swept away the dirt from under the Mistresses desk. That was when she noticed something off about, one of the bottom drawers looked like it had forcefully opened and had the handle partially broken off. This immediately alerted her and she laid the broom down and kneeled so she could pull it out.

Had the mistress returned last night? Possibly, gems didn’t need to sleep but when would she find time to do that while she was busy ruling the kingdom. Moreover she had personally overseen her rooms design and with the way she always bragged about it whenever an opportunity presented itself it didn’t feel like something she would do even as an accident.  
The condition of the scrolls inside was hinting signs that they had been roughly rummaged through and had multiple claw marks. Odd.

“This can’t be good” she said as she carefully examined the slashes. It looked very much like the work of an animal, perhaps a wolf or tiger. At this point Connie was feeling more than a little uneasy and checked her surroundings hastily. She needed to inform the mistress at once.  
Walking over to the door she was in the middle of reaching for the knob when a thought occurred to her. Would even get close to palace without being stopped and harassed by pompous nobles or knocked senseless by guards for trying to enter the more militaristic section of the palace. 

She didn’t hesitate to shake the thoughts out of her head, over half the things an average sorceress owned could be highly dangerous in the wrong hands, and the Mistress was well above the level of the average Sorceress in both knowledge and skill and mage craft. Add that with the no doubt massive supply of cursed artefacts she had acquired thanks to her position in the kingdom and one could only imagine what sort of danger was a foot. Opening the door she hurried out of the room

-XXSteven UniverseXX-

As she Pearl ran across the thick bushes, ducking under branches and leaping over stump she felt a constant urge to turn back and re-join or her mistress. Fighting alongside her where she rightfully belonged, not running away with her tail between her legs. Ok, that wasn’t true since she was following orders but it still felt like she was abandoning Rose to her fate.

Just as she vaulted over a large rock she saw a brief flash of blue before her body collided hard with another one and tumbled to the ground. Her sword flying out of her hand and planting itself on the muddy ground a metre away.

“Aughh” she heard the individual groan under her. Her body ached from the hard landing and she moaned in pain as she raised a visibly muddy hand to her forehead and sighed in relief when she felt no cracks on her gem.   
It wasn’t until she felt a pair of arms grab at her elbows and pin her down that she fully registered what had happened. The persons face was hidden behind a hood making it difficult for to make out the individuals face. It only took a second for her instincts to trigger and start struggling.

It wasn’t difficult to tell that this gem wasn’t a fighter since her body lacked any sort upper body strength. Pearl had no trouble shoving her off and trapping her with her full body weight. In between struggling her hood fell down revealing a familiar blue face, the two immediately locked eyes in shock.

“Lapis?!”

“Pearl?!”

They both said in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another one, Not much to say other than its getting a little hard to stay ahead of schedule. Not gonna make any promises I can't keep but i'll try to keep the updates frequent.


	9. Unpleasant comparison & A close call.

“I’m telling you we need those diamonds more that you do” 

“For what? To decorate the chandeliers in your work room. I think its obvious who’s needs are more important” 

The pair of Peridot’s had been going on like this for the last three hour and had gotten nowhere. Both trying to justify each other’s reasons while taking jab at the other. Outside the conference room the sorceress and her present assistant Pearl had just arrived and could hear their voices clearly through the door. Did they really need to be so loud?

She made sure to keep a straight face on to mask her growing fatigue and pushed the door open without knocking. After all if she was going to rule a kingdom she’d act like a ruler. The two immediately ceased their bickering and looked over at them in surprise.

“And who exactly gave you permission to open that door unannounced?” one of them said as she glared over at them. But as soon as she saw the pointy hat and long staff her eyes widened in shock.

“I do believe I gave myself that right Facet-4AG” she replied in a monotone. The two immediately got down and bowed their heads. They both wore the standard Peridot colour scheme with light green skin, limb enhancements and a transparent visor. However the defining features that separated them was the noticeable difference in hair styles and gem placement.

“Oh Sorceress! My apologies. I wasn’t expecting you so soon” Facet-4AG said apologetically. She had fairly long blonde hair that she kept in pony tail with her gem placed on her left shoulder.

“Welcome to Sector Z, my lady.” the other said respectfully. Unlike her co-worker her hair was short and held under a small green titanium helmet, her gem was positioned on her chest. She wasn’t a familiar face so she immediately deduced that she was new. Probably got promoted a few decades ago.

She could sense that they were both nervous of being around her, more so than usual. Likely due to her sudden heightened status. That was fine with her so long as it didn’t interfere with their work. Pearl trailed after her with the notepad held in one hand, her face completely unreadable.  
Hovering her hand in a rising motion Peridot spoke with an air of authority.

“Enough of the formalities, rise, both of you” she ordered which they both obeyed.   
Moving over to the conference table they all took a seat with Peridot on the largest one meant for the highest ranking personnel. Pearl opted to remain standing so she could be at Peridot’s side in case anything was needed of her, but since the Queen was away it was more out of habit. Sure from a technical perspective Pearl was her subordinate but since she was made to personally assist the queen she was under no obligation to serve anyone else.

“So tell me? Just what is so troubling that the two of you are slowing down progress on construction?” she asked as she rested her staff against the table. Clearing her throat the short haired Peridot spoke.

“Well you see, In order to speed up the growth rate and efficiency of newly formed gems I conducted some experiments with raw diamonds and Bismuth minerals. And if my calculations are correct we could cut their growth speed by half”

“Interesting”

“Indeed. And that’s not all, we could even make them more durable in battle. Maybe even make their gems exterior near impenetrable in battle. The Yellow kingdom would become an even greater military force, perhaps even great enough to overpower the likes of white Diamond” she said with the professionalism in her tone gradually deteriorating in the wake her excitement. 

“Oh please. You and your crackpot theories aren’t taking you or the kingdom anywhere. My lady Facet-6ZU has only been here for the last three decades. I assure you her theories rarely ever amount to anything helpful” Facet-4AG said as she exchanged a glare with her co-worker. Rolling her eyes at their unprofessional behaviour she leaned back on her chair and rested her cheek on her knuckles.

“I’ll be the judge of that. Frankly I’m more curious as to why you’re opposed to her course of action. After all, Peridot’s are supposed to be innovators, the ones that push technologies to the very extreme of what their capable of and beyond. Or has that slogan changed over the last one thousand years when I was still a head technician?” she asked as she glanced over at the Peridot and made eye contact. 

“N-No of course not. I just don’t believe her research is going to amount anything more than damaging the gems that still haven’t finished forming. If that happens it could set back our development plans by a full centuries. Not to mention squander valuable diamonds that we need to power our drills” she replied honestly. A fair argument, they both made valid points that.  
Finding new ways of bettering their technology was always important but their growth rate wasn’t in any dire need of improvements at the moment either. Well the sooner they came to an equitable agreement the better.

“6ZU” she said as she grabbed her staff and stood up.

“Yes my lady?” the gem replied nervously.

“Are you certain this research of yours will be beneficial to the kingdom” she asked she stared the fellow Peridot down.

“Yes. I’m certain” she said seriously. Sighing lightly the Sorceress replied.

“Very well then, but before I can approve your research I need a full report on the theories as soon as possible. And if I find it acceptable enough then you can have free reign on implementing them. However you’re only allowed to fifteen percent of mineral resources. The rest of it goes to powering drills and other equipment. Acceptable?”

The two exchanged uncertain looks before glancing back at her nodding. Fifteen Percent wasn’t too much but still a generous amount, certainly a bit more than the gem would actually need. At the same time it wouldn’t really slow down their daily routines either.

“Yes, most acceptable my lady” the two said in unison.

“Good, now if were done here stop dawdling and get back to work you clods!” she barked causing the two Peridot’s to jump slightly before scurrying off to their work stations. Once the two were out the room Pearl chuckled lightly.

“I must say, you’ve got quite a way with your subordinates, Sorceress” she said. Peridot glanced at her wearily.

“And that’s humorous to you because?”

“Nothing really, just noticed that you and your majesty aren’t so different in your ruling methods”. That line perked her interest as well as her dread.

“I never took you for a court Jester Pearl” she replied unamused. She liked to think she was quite unique in her approach to everything work related so being compared to one such as Yellow Diamond wasn’t something she appreciated.  
The two made their way down the corridor and towards their next order of business. Matching her long strides Pearl replied.

“I try” she replied with a hint of amusement. “You on the other hand-“ she began when they heard a low growl by the door. Stopping in their tracks the two glanced over at the door and spotted a Jasper talking to an unseen figure. They were just within earshot of the exchange.

“Listen human, I don’t care how urgent it is I’m not letting you through here” the Jasper said in an annoyed tone. Raising an eyebrow at the sight Peridot stared at the Jasper who had her back turned to them.

“A human? Why would a human be trying to enter here? This area is off limits to them” Pearl said with a dumbfounded look. And she was right to be for while it was never openly admitted it was no secret that the Queen despised humans, so much in fact that she only dealt with them when she absolutely needed to. Otherwise she had them slaving away at the kindergartens digging up valuable minerals. 

All that alone wouldn’t be enough to say she outright despised human, since human labour was standard practice across all the kingdoms. But the Yellow Kingdoms was practically unrivalled when it came to its slave mortality rate. A confirmed seventy eight percent child mortality rate and a fifty three percent for adults between the ages twenty to forty.  
If that wasn’t enough any human that dared to step into royal courts would be sent to correctional room where they would be severely tortured over the course of twenty four hours.  
With all of that in mind, why in the world was a human trying to enter? 

“Could you at least send an informant? Please this is really urgent” said a low meek sounding voice that Peridot recognised. 

“Listen you little brat. Whatever it is you have to do, its gonna have to wait, so either you turn back I’ll pretend this never happened. Or we can take a trip to the correctional facility. I’m sure we can set you straight over there. You decide?” she said threateningly. The girl seemed to fall silent after that.

“I-I. No of course not! But I-” she said fearfully. Narrowing her eyes at the two she noticed thick strands of dark showing from in front of the Jasper. 

‘No way, she wouldn’t be that stupid. Would she?’ Peridot thought as she began walking over them, much to Pearls surprise.

“Seems to me like your feeling indecisive. No worries one quick tour of the correctional facility should help you make a decision, maybe a small sample of their treatments. Just for you.” she said as she reached down to grab at the girl. In response Peridot snapped her fingers and the Jasper body was frozen in place.

“What the? I can’t move” she said as she struggled to move her arms.

“I don’t believe that will be necessary” the sorceress said as she stepped past the Jasper and looked over at the familiar face of her student of two years. Connie Maheswaran. Her face was riddled with fear before relaxing into relief as Peridot approached.

“Mistress Peridot?” she said uncertainly

“Connie” she replied as she looked down at her, her face riddled with confusion and barely concealed annoyance. “I hope you have a very good reason for being here”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No authors note other than this note informing you all that this author has no notes that need to be noted. Get it XD... was that a horrible joke? Maybe. Will I be writing another colourful horrible joke in future posts? Well according to my future vision all the branching paths lead back to the same root. So yes!
> 
> For lack of any other irrelevant things to say I'll leave things here, so until next chapter. Stay Frosty guys.


	10. A strange turn of events

It was at times like these that Connie wondered if the Sorceress had some kind of Connie danger detector around, cause her timing couldn’t have been better. After all the careful sneaking about to avoid trouble her goal was within sight. Unfortunately she had two problems, the main one being that there was a huge hulk sized Jasper standing guard as well as the fact that up ahead was no literally no man’s land. She was gambling that her student status would protect her from getting confronted by any curious gems. Of course she wasn’t foolish enough to actually step in there alone but she just hoped she could appeal to the Jaspers better side.

In hind sight approaching her wasn’t a very smart move, not that it was ever smart to begin with. She was already intimidated enough by the sharp glare she got from her, but the threat of correctional punishment broke all her nerves making it almost impossible to form coherent words in place of her fear.  
And at the last the second the Sorceress showed up to aid her.

By the frown on her face she didn’t look pleased to say the least. 

“It’s an emergency. Something really bad hap-“ she began when she was caught off.

“Save it for in private Connie” her Mistress said as she raised an arm to silence her. Eventually coming out her shock the Jasper was barely able to glance at Peridot and suddenly looked less menacing.

“Oh, my lady. I wasn’t aware that she was your student. ” she said in a weak attempt to explain herself. Every gem in the palace knew what she looked like from head to toe. And more importantly they knew of her connection to the Queens personal Sorceress.  
As she had come to expect from her teacher Peridot barely even glanced at her but instead grabbing Connie’s shoulder and guiding away from the Jasper and back into the safe section of the palace. Once they were in an empty room Peridot released her.

“Alright. Explain yourself” she said with an expectant look.

“Someone broke into the office last night” she blurted out, perhaps a little too quickly as her voice came out sounding a little muffled. In response the Sorceress’s eyes widened in shock.

“What?” she said with an uncertain look, no doubt hoping she misheard her. “Were you attacked by anyone? Did they hurt you?” she asked, concern written all over her face. She shook her head in response.

“No, I wasn’t attacked by anyone”.

“Then what happened to your glasses?”

“My glasses?” she said when she remembered what happened with the diamond nobles a few days ago. She’d been so swept up with her studies she almost forgot they were partially cracked. “ No that was from something else” she explained.

“Something else?”

“Yes. It was just some nobles who wer-” she said when she cut off

“Hold it. Start from the beginning”

“Yes Mistress Peridot” she said obediently. So she explained everything from the beginning to end. How she had just overworked herself studying and decided to head back to her room after locking up. The strange presence she thought she felt on her way back and the mangled condition of her scrolls the next day. The Sorceress listened carefully, never interrupting her once.  
Her grip on her staff tightened ever so slightly as Connie went on. 

“And so I thought it was best I informed you as soon as possible”.

“I see. Is that all?” she asked. She gave a nod in response. 

“Good. Thank you informing me of this as soon as possible, Connie. I, appreciate your initiative” she said with a small smile, a sign of approval.

“I just did what seemed like the smartest course action. You’re too kind Mistress” Connie said sheepishly, if she was blushing right now she really hoped it wasn’t obvious, though with her luck it was probably as clear as day. Thankfully the Sorceress was kind enough to not comment and went on

“Well perhaps. But you don’t give yourself enough credit” she said. Suddenly there was a soft knock on the door before it was opened and a gem with bright Yellow skin walked in. Her eyes were fixed on Peridot with clear annoyance.  
“There you are Sorceress” she said as she folded her arms and scowled at her. 

“Is there a problem Pearl?” the Sorceress asked with hint of mocking in her tone.

“Is there a problem?! In case you’ve forgotten we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and need to move efficiently. You just wondered off and left me there. Every second you spend idle is time we could be spending working and-“ she paused when she noticed Connie standing next to Peridot.  
It only took her moment to draw the comparison in their attire.

“Oh... So this is the apprentice the other Pearls keep gossiping about” she said as her bright gold orbs scrutinised her from head to toe. This was the first she’d actually seen Yellow Pearl up close before, the highest ranked Pearl in the Kingdom and personal assistant of Queen Yellow Diamond. She’d only caught small glimpses of her and the Queen from her bedroom window every once in a while.  
Lowing her head respectfully Connie bowed.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance ma’am” Connie greeted. Surprisingly Pearl responded to the gesture with a polite bow of her own, since when did high rank gems actually return greetings from their subordinates, let alone a human.

“No, the pleasure is mine.-“ she said with a smile before turning over to the Mistress. “-Is there a problem I should know of, Sorceress?”. The mistress took a moment before answering, likely contemplating whether or not Pearl needed to know about this problem. 

“Well. It appears my archive was broken into last night” she said as she ran an idle finger over the gems on her staff, something Connie noted she often did when she was deep in thought. 

“A break in? Was anything important taken?” Yellow Pearl asked in concern to which the Sorceress shrugged.

“I have still yet to confirm that. But please inform all guards to keep an eye out for any suspicious looking Individuals” she instructed. Nodding in agreement Pearl pushed stray lock out of her face before turning back. Before walking she looked over at the Sorceress over her shoulder with a serious expression on her face. 

“Fine, but I hope you haven’t forgotten that your obligations to the Queen come before anything else. I’ll cover for you for as long as I can but try to not take too long”

“I haven’t forgotten, but I’m not about to ignore something like this either. I’ll seek you out as soon as I’m done investigating it. It’ll only be an hour or two”  
Sighing in resignation Yellow Pearl walked off.

“Fine, I’ll hold you to that, Sorceress” she said as she closed the door behind them. As soon they were alone again the Sorceress raised her staff up high. The emerald at the top started emitting a pale glow accompanied by an ominous growl-like sound as a small sphere shaped portal appeared on top of the gem. It was completely dark, just like a black hole. 

“Wow” Connie said wondrously as she stared at the incredible sight of magic, after two whole years the novelty of watching the Sorceress cast a spell seamlessly and without having to chant a single word was still remarkable  
Swiftly a small light green sphere fell out of the portal and into the Sorceresses palm.

“Take this and keep it with you at all times” she instructed as she handed the metal ball over to Connie who accepted in both hands.

“This is so cool. Is it some kind of magical weapon?” Connie asked as an excited smile spread across her face. 

“Depends on your idea of Magical” she replied with a smirk.

“Oh, is it a crystal ball I can use to contact you?”

“No”

“A teleportation sphere then”

“Connie, why would I get you that when I’ve already taught you basic teleportation?”

“Right, sorry. Um, Is it a Griffin summoning stone?” she asked. The Mistress rubbed her temples and fixed her student with a half amused look.

“Griffins don’t even live this far East.”

“A ritual stone?!” she said with a hopeful look

“No”. 

“Um, okay. What is it then?” she said in defeat.

“It’s a Flask Robonoid”. A Robonoid? Those robotic helpers that Peridots used to repair damaged equipment, mainly warp pads. If her heart was on the verge of bursting out of her chest it was now at risk of shrinking three times its size. It was hopeless at this point but she tried to push it just a little longer.

“Is it… A magical Robonoid?” Connie asked hesitantly to which the Sorceress shook her head. Losing interest in her students little guessing game the Sorceress proceeded to explain.

“No, just a standard Robonoid with a few added features to its AI” she said. “I didn’t plan on giving you this until our next class but given our present circumstances it’s better to be safe than sorry” 

Turning to the door she adjusted her cone shaped hat and pushed the door open. “Come on. I’ll escort you back to your room” she said as she motioned for Connie to follow her.  
“But why do I need this?” Connie asked tentatively as she placed the Robonoid into her sack and followed.

“I’ve equipped it with some defence weaponry. Despite your status as my ward there a still a number of gems in the palace that will no doubt try to bring harm to you given the chance. If it senses that you’re in any sort of danger it’ll defend you, naturally I’ll also be informed if its defences are active. So you can breathe a little easier outside” she said as she closed the door behind them. 

“Oh, thank you my lady but is it really necessary? After all the most trouble I ever get is few Pearls talking behind my back.” she said in an attempt to reassure the Sorceress. Other than the fact that she liked to believe she could defend herself if the need arose, the idea if the Sorceress tracking her every move was a little too pushy.  
Peridot rolled eyes at her.

“Really? Cause last I heard you were harassed by a group of nobles”. Damn, she shouldn’t have let that detail slip out. “And your glasses as well could use some work” she stated as they walked along the hallway. Yup she wasn’t getting her way anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter caused me quite a bit of trouble to write. Guess that what happens when you force yourself to sit down and type even when your inspiration is dead. Well at any rate I hope you guys enjoyed reading this more than I did writing it.  
> But now that Steven is finally back in full swing I think I get back into this story properly. But until the next chapter stay frosty guys.


	11. Intruder!

She’d done this all the time, the other gems always obeyed and respected her when she issued orders, heck they even looked a little frightened when she made eye contact. So why was it so hard to get anyone’s attention this time? Sure things were chaotic right now but they were never too much of a problem for her.

“Oh yeah, it’s because I’m just a Ruby right now” Ruby said as she crushed a small rock under her foot. Without Sapphire around there was no way she could form Garnet, the real second commander of the resistance.   
After she had taken out several blue diamond troops she heard Rose order them all to retreat back into forest which she promptly obeyed believing her and Pearl would be right behind her. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Rose was nowhere to be seen when they made it back to secret catacombs, a special network of tunnels the crystal gems used as a base of operations.

As soon as the last of the gems made it they she sealed the entrance and proceeded to the main hall, a large empty room big enough to hold the entire resistance. Everything was a mess, gems were arguing, others were pacing about nervously. A few were frantically trying to nurse the injuries sustained by their gems, most of them weren’t terribly injured though.  
After pushing her way through to the stage she tried getting everyone to simmer down. But most didn’t even seem to notice the four foot midget and carried on arguing.

“Hey, could you all just calm down for one minute!” she yelled again to no avail. Her teeth gritting in growing annoyance, steam was oozing out of her ears in a manner most would probably find comical. But before she could melt a hole through the stage floor she felt a hand pat her shoulder. Glancing up she saw that it was Bismuth, a large blue gem with multi colored hair and one of her closest friends

“Having trouble rubes?” she said with an understanding look. In response Ruby groaned in, at the moment words couldn’t really describe her annoyance.

“You’d think they’d actually shut up after fifteen minutes of panicking”

“Let me give it a try” the large gem said as she stepped onto the stage and clapped her hands in an attempt to draw some attention.” Hey everyone, everyone. Could y’all calm done for just a minute please!” the blacksmith yelled and just like Ruby was barely heard over the endless mumbling.

“Hey! Would you all just stop arguing and listen” she tried again, turned down flat once again. At this point the ground below Rubies feet was aflame and the temperature skyrocketed.

“WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?” Ruby roared so strongly that every gem in the room turned their heads in surprise.

“Thanks Rubes”

“Don’t mention it” she said with her eyes narrowed to the side. Honestly the gems could be so hopeless when there wasn’t someone around to yell sense back into their heads. Turning to the Troops Bismuth cleared her throat before speaking out before everyone.

“I get it how you all feel. We weren’t warned of any incoming threats and our leader Rose Quarts still hasn’t turned up, Pearl and Lazuli are also missing, and to top it off we don’t know how they managed to get past our defences, but they did anyway. We all have no idea if this could happen again or if they could discover the base as well. Were all more than a little on edge. But you can’t let that keep you down” the gem said firmly.  
No one was quite as flamboyant as Rose when it came to giving reassuring speeches but it was enough to make them all remember what they were here for and straighten up.

“But what if they discover the cave. It’s not like we have anywhere else to fall back to” said a single worried looking mercury. This evoked some doubtful looks from a lot of other gems who looked at the Bismuth sceptically.

“Come on you guys Rose Quarts would never let us have a base underground if it could be discovered so easily, and besides the entrance is sealed with multiple barriers” Bismuth countered causing the water gem to fall silent, though she still didn’t look reassured.  
Ruby scratched her head tiredly. She really, really missed Sapphire right now. Being Garnet always made her feel like she could do anything. But she was away now for over a month on some mission for the rebellion. Rose needed an inside source on court activities and Sapphire was the perfect candidate. That fact didn’t make things much better for ruby though, she just hoped she was alright.

Xx-STEVEN UNIVERSE-Xx

After a long walk back to the office Peridot shoved the door open and stepped inside, a sense of foreboding lingered in her all the while. The room still looked fine from here, it was the desk that was object of her attention. She used the end of her staff to close the door before stepping over to its side and just as Connie had described the bottom write draw looked like it had been aggressively ripped off. Pulling the drawer out of its place the desk she laid it down on the table and grabbed some of ripped documents for closer inspection.

“Huh, the papers been ripped. Just like Connie said” she said as ran her fingers along the claw marks. How in the world could an animal get into the palace let alone her office? Well there were more than a few ways to find out.

Reaching for her upper drawer she pulled out her old robotic arm attachment and put it over her left arm. She hadn’t used one of these in ages, not since she became the queens Sorceress, hopefully it still worked after all this time. To both her worry and relief she heard the familiar click indicating the device recognised her as a Peridot and held in a yelp as she felt the rough metal constrict around her elbow sorely.  
Being an older model Peridot could be a real pain at times, especially since she wasn’t combatable with a lot of new equipment types made for them these days. She gave her arm a minute to adjust to the pain before flicking her robotic fingers around. 

“Motor control feels a little off but I suppose that’s to be expected from old tech” she said as she formed a mini-screen with her fingers and scrolled through it. “Enlarge” she ordered and the screen expanded about three times. Using the transparent olivine screen as a magnify glass she tried focusing on any heat signatures on the papers, she received positive results.  
Narrowing her eyes at it she could only make out a single faint mark on the paper, there was one problem though. It way only just barely salvageable, she needed a bigger sample if she was going trace it back to the intruder.

“Let’s speed this up” she said summoning a portal from her staff and let several Robonoids land on her desk. Fully aware of the task they needed to accomplish the Robonoids leaped off her desk and spread out around every corner of the room. In the mean time she looked through each paper carefully. 

The Talons marks definitely resembled some kind of animal, maybe a wolf or wild cat. The papers were mainly blue prints for a new ship design she’d been working on for the last year or at least what was left of it, some instructions for complex summoning spells and a book on Necromancy. She also noticed that there was one paper missing, an old map of the palace.   
Perhaps the intruder was trying to get somewhere in the palace, but how would they now she had a map? Not to mention there were much easier ways to get a map of the palace if that was what they were after. It just didn’t add up. 

Just then her mini screen started blinking aggressively, a seemed a Robonoid had found something. She stepped away from the desk and towards the Robonoid which was blasting a small card board box with a its stun cannon. 

“Hey, stop that” she ordered in annoyance. Intruder or not she wasn’t about let anything damage her meticulously designed office. However the Robonoid didn’t register her command and continued spewing liquid acid at it, and serving to irritate her further. But then suddenly something leaped out of the box and pounced on her Robonoid, startling Peridot.  
It was small, pink and moved on four legs

“What the-!” she said in shock as the animal turned to her. Her Robonoid held in its tiny jaws. Now that she had a good look a she could tell it was a lion cub. Taking advantage of her momentary shock the pink lion cub spat out a damaged Robonoid and let a low roar in her direction, she was about raise her staff up in defence when a flash of pink light blinded her followed by a strong force and threw her back, barely a second later she felt her head slam painfully against the wall before collapsing onto her dissection table.   
The table was already relatively old so it was no surprise when the legs collapsed from the sheer force. Many of glass containers shattered spilling their chemicals all over the office floor. The centipeadles body was scaly and hard, making the crash even more painful. 

The only thing she could register for the first few minutes was that her head and back hurt really bad. But eventually she regained enough presence of mind to realize her arms were burning up from chemical exposure and quickly scrambled to her feet. It was bad move though, and the pain doubled everywhere. 

“Damn it” she said as she grit her teeth in pain. Her visor had a single crack along her right eye but was otherwise intact. To add insult to injury her hat had fallen off and was now thoroughly soaked in chemicals which were beginning to dissolve it. Her unkempt shoulder length blonde hair fell and partially covered her face. Without her hat to hold it in place her bangs were nuisance.

She could mourn the loss of her favourite head ornament later more importantly the pink lion cup was escaping. The room door had been broken off its hinges and now lay against the outer stone wall looking partially bent. Stepping out of the office she looked around for any signs of her attacker, but at this point that was wishful thinking. It would be way too far ahead at this point, and with its small size hiding wouldn’t be much of a problem for it.

The best she could do was to try and trace its steps. Glancing back at the office she looked at the huge mess left in the wake of her little accident and let out a frustrated sigh. Pearl was gonna be pissed, but she’d get over it… Maybe. Right now the Sorceress just couldn’t be bothered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the plot thickens, sorry that updates aren’t as frequent but I’ve struggling from writers block lately. Nonetheless I’m determined to see this fic to the end. So until next time stay frosty guys :)


	12. envy & the second phaze

With another resounding wham from her fist Jasper sent a group rubies across the huge arena crash hard into the wall, causing large chunks of debris to fall out as a result and crash on top of the unfortunate rubies.  
These worthless excuses for enemies weren’t even making her break a sweat. She came down to the arena wanting a challenge, at least something that could keep her mind of present matters. But she has having lousy luck since enemy after enemy was falling over like a box of sticks. Even the strong est warriors felt like they had glass jaws.  
Scoffing at the sight of her downed opponents Jasper rubbed her knuckles and spoke to the Peridot that served as the arena manager. 

“Bring me another one” she ordered. With a nervous nod the Peridot motioned to pair of Jaspers who instantly froze up the minute they were called on. But knowing that the princess was in a bitter mood they knew better than to back down. 

They were just as big as she was but size wasn’t something that really mattered against the seasoned gem warrior. Her opponents took their position on the other side of the Arena, their helmets drawn. The sound of a bell initiated the fight and the pair immediately performed a spin dash towards her. Jasper stood her ground and watched them approach her at over a hundred kilometres per hour.

She’d seen this technique a hundred times before and wasn’t even remotely impressed when broke off their charge at just a few metres away from her, hurling dust at her and clouding up her field of vision. They then began circling her, thereby increasing the thick around her. After minute or so of this tactic things went silent.

“This is all a waste of my time” Jasper muttered under breath. Even with low visibility she could still hear the rusting of the feet along the ground. Rolling her eyes she ducked at the last second and performed a leg sweep, knocking one off her feet and onto the ground with an audible thud. She then raised an arm to the side and grab the helmet of the other one during charge attack. She anticipated the momentum behind the attack and adjusted her footing to compensate.

As the blow connected Jasper felt the ground sink and shatter beneath her feet, her footing was begin to loosen and couldn’t hold her ground anymore, sending her sliding back violently along the concrete floor. It seemed she owed her opponent a bit more credit as she wasn’t expecting the blow to be so powerful. 

Raising her fist she slammed straight into the fellow jaspers gut and propelled her high into the air and straight into a row of empty seats at the very top of the arena. The sheer force behind the blow was enough to make the small handful of off duty gems that were watching to gawk at her in awe. They were just lowly rubies though, not worth her time.   
That didn’t stop a single Ruby at the front cheering her on though.

“Wow, that was great Princess!” she said before being shushed by her Ruby commander who wore a yellow Visor over her face.

“Pipe down eyeball” 

“Oh sorry Ruby” the subordinate before sinking back into her chair.

For one brief second Jasper glanced at them and made eye contact with them. It was barely a second of contact but she them all flinch slightly at her, all except the one who was cheering her on. She had a dump look on her face that just screamed incompetence, things like that always made her sick. So much that she was almost tempted to choose her as her next punching bag, just almost.  
But Rubies were an expendable lot, they were the common types of gems and they’d been in so many battles that she’d rarely every meet one more than once since they’d most likely be shattered in combat. In fact it wasn’t at all a stretch to call them cannon fodder.

Scoffing at them she turned back to her one remaining opponent who was back on her feet albeit more than a little roughed up, but undeterred. Just as she’d expect from another Jasper, never one to give up easily. She could actually respect that if only her opponent could make her try. 

As they approached each other her opponent throw a wide swing at her which she ducked under. Without a moment’s hesitation she began mercilessly barraging her opponent with attacks she could barely keep up with. She landed a punch right in her opponent’s jaw making her stagger back and rub her injuries, but the Princess wasn’t the arenas champion for nothing and she closed the distance in the blink of an eye. Shape shifting into her ball form she slammed hard against the gem and knocked her down. 

Bouncing into the air she flew several metres into the air before plummeting back down at a break neck speed and instantly crushing the defenceless Jasper under her. A loud thud echoed through the arena and ground gave way under her creating a small ditch in the centre. A blanket of sand covered centre and the spectators went silent. 

Shifting out of her ball form Jasper looked at her feet and a saw a gem lying on the ground. She picked and saw a small crack on its side. Perhaps she’d gone a little overboard. But then again no amount of undeserved she’d dish out would ever be enough to make her care.  
Sighing in dissatisfaction she haphazardly flicked the damaged gem towards the surprised manager who just barely caught it. This wasn’t nearly enough of a challenge.

“Send in another opponent” Jasper ordered without looking over at her. 

“I- I can’t” she responded.

“What?”. She glanced over at the manager and gave her dangerous glare. Nobody could blame the Peridot for sinking back into her seat, not a single gem on the palace grounds wanted to be on the Princess’s bad side. Everyone was afraid of her even if they’d never admit it, well everyone except Queen Yellow Diamond.

“You’ve gravelly injured all the willing combatants while the rest are out performing their guard duties, there simply isn’t anyone left for you to fight” she explained. 

Gritting her teeth in dissatisfaction the Princess stomped over to the exit. This was the part where things got especially irritating, she’d finished all her duties ahead of schedule and had far more free time than she needed, the arena was her only pass time and now it was also off the table.  
There was nothing left that could possibly distract her from the object of her hatred. The worthless excuse of a gem that snuck her way into the Queens life through flattery and her rare gift of magic. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d imagined crushing her gem in her bare hands.

But for some reason she hadn’t confronted her yet, almost as if some outside force was controlling her temper. Every time she felt the motivation arise it would only take a few minutes for her to lose interest, not a feeling she was used to especially considering she always saw every ‘spur of the moment’ feeling through to the end.

As the door opened she spotted a pair of Peridotes walking along the hallway, chatting about some technical mombo jumbo. The one on the left looked especially similar to the sorceress in both facial structure and gem placement. Enough to raise her ire.

Naturally the gems bowed respectfully as she passed, but just as she was passing them she kicked the sorceress look alike to the side causing her to crash into the wall. There were a few shocked gasps from the other gems but no one was stupid enough to dwell on it, or even question it for that matter. The Princess could do whatever she wanted to lower class gems.   
All they could do was make way for her as she passed.

From the first day that Witch was appointed Sorceress she made name for herself outfitting the kingdom with all the most cutting edge weapons and defence technology. She had a natural knack for providing results, the one trait the Queen valued above all else. And what made it worse was that despite Jaspers own tactical genius and unmatched skills she had still taken second place in the Queens favour department. It was humiliating.  
She was just a Peridot, take her magic toys from her and she’d break like a match on a battlefield. But instead here she was ruling the kingdom instead of Jasper who outranked her. At this rate the 

Queen wouldn’t need her, the only way out would be to get rid of her, lest she run the risk of the Queen revoking her title.  
But how would she do that? Even if she shattered her in secret she would be a prime suspect thanks to her not so subtle malcontent for the Sorceress. Framing her could possibly work though, spreading a not too flattering rumour about her that could get her out of the Queens good graces. It wouldn’t be hard either considering how much Pearls enjoyed gossiping.  
So deep was she in thought that she didn’t even notice a tiny ball of pink fur pass under a table to her side.

 

XXxStevenUniversexXX

 

“And you haven’t noticed anything strange yet?” 

“No, so far the Kingdom has treated us with respect and etiquette. They even gave us three of their 3rd generation defence Mechs” Sapphire replied formally to her Queen, Blue Diamond.  
Thanks to this Kingdoms Technology she could easily keep in contact with her queen in the form of a transparent hologram, one that didn’t require magic stones, another reason for the Blue Kingdom to be grateful for their generally positive relationship.

“Good, with the rapid decline in resources over here it would be unwise to get on Yellow Diamonds bad side” 

“Indeed my Diamond, it was most unfortunate that we couldn’t meet the Queen before her mission. However are you sure we aren’t appearing desperate by waiting here for her return, last thing the kingdom needs is for the Queen to think she has us under her thumb” Sapphire said in a concerned tone. Due to her long scarf and collected demeanour it was often hard to make out what was on her Diamonds mind.

“That is not an immediate concern right now Sapphire, if events play out as you’ve predicted then everything will be fine, and should the need arise we’ll be sure to remind this Kingdom why they signed on to an alliance with us” the Queen said in her usual unaffected tone.

“As you say my Diamond” 

“For now you know what to do, don’t you Sapphire?”

“Gather as much information from the Queens inner circle as possible” 

“Yes. How’s that coming along”

“Well unsurprisingly almost all of them are battle proficient gems. All six are Quarts gems with the exception of an Emerald and the Sorceress who the Queen apparently trusts enough to leave in charge of her kingdom.

“So I’ve heard. Have you made your move yet?” the Queens asked and Sapphire shook her head.

“No, I’ve been gaging them all from a distance and it looks like the two odd ones and a single not too bright Jasper are my best options. The other three are fairly new and likely won’t know too much. I’ll be very discreet though

“Naturally, I’ll leave you to it for now. Take care that you don’t get caught, losing your power will significantly lower the Intel team’s flexibility” the Queen said just before cutting the transmission and leaving Sapphire alone in the small circular room. 

Turning to the exit she exited the room and stepped onto one of the balconies that over looked the kingdom. There where huge gems structures all around, training grounds, Towers, Temples and in the centre was a huge ditch where the kindergarten was stationed. And at the end was a huge one hundred story wall that spanned the entire kingdom.

There was no question that any siege would be a long hard fought battle that would result in heavy loses from any invaders. The Yellow kingdom was advanced up to the point that it could stand without its Queen.  
She was pulled out of her reverie when she felt something tug at her dress. Turning around she spotted a familiar pink creature.

“Lion” she whispered in surprise. as she got down and petted the cub.

“Rawr”. Kneeling down she stroked his head and smiled. She hadn’t seen the little fella days and was starting worry, especially since there was a fifty/fifty chance of the plan working.

“Did you find it?” she asked to which lion yipped in response. “Good, take me to it” she said. Turning around the cub ran out of the room with Sapphire trailing behind. Now she could move onto phase two of the strategy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, feels like its been forever since i updated this. Sorry, just had a lot going on in my life right now and my day are pretty. Been trying write to stay ahead but there hasn't been much time for it. Still gonna try to post another chapter with the next week or two (hopefully more than two chapters)
> 
> Anyway I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always stay frosty :).


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